Joey Comeau

Hi! Thanks for agreeing to do the interview. What was the inspiration for One Bloody Thing After Another?

Horror movies. I watch a lot of horror movies. I love them. I love that they can be funny and strange as often as tense or scary. And I *really* love when they slip into unexpected sadness. I wanted to write a horror book that touched on all those feelings. An optimistic horror book.

What were the challenges in writing a story that includes a lot of elements and different genres? What made you decide to combine them all into one book?

I don’t really think of different genres as different kinds of writing. It seems fine to have a book where different kinds of things happen. I wanted to write a monster book where the monsters had real people who cared about them. Also, I wanted to write a book about an old man and his stupid dog, and their love for each other. And I wanted to write a book about a headless ghost! I wanted to write about all these ideas, the way I always have a million ideas, but these ones sort of clung together in my head, because they all were about the terrible things people will do to protect someone they love.

How has your experience writing for comics influenced/impacted the way you write fiction?

It has definitely made me more comfortable with brevity. Why say something in 1000 words when you can say it in 200? Why not just say a thing? I like plain language and simplicity. Clarity! When you only have 20 words or so to express an idea in a comic, you get more practice with brevity and clarity, for sure. And I think it’s improved my fiction writing.

Please help support the Shirley Jackson Awards. Click here for details.